Tree
by Jack of All Suits
Summary: V has died. But, even after death he cannot escape difficulty. Sent from Purgatory, V is invisible to all but those who are meant to see him. Will he be able to accomplish his goal and enter the Afterlife? Movieverse.


**Title: Tree**

**Rating: K+**

**Genre: Action/Adventure**

**Summary: V has died. But, even after death he cannot escape difficulty. Sent from Purgatory, V is invisible to all but those who are meant to see him. Will he be able to accomplish his goal and enter the Afterlife? Movie-verse.**

**Authors Note: This is my first V for Vendetta fic, and as such I am forced to say that I don't have an exceptional amount of skill in the art of V and Evey's personalities. As a result, ANY help would be appreciated.**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing, kids. NOTHING! **

What was this? Peace?

Whatever it was, it felt very good.

V closed his eyes (Did he have eyes anymore?), and felt himself drift away as the train rocked beneath him. He heard an unreal boom, but the peace was so nice… he didn't even flinch.

The sensation that came with losing his body was fantastic. A rush of pure energy as his self was sent into the ethereal beyond. The last layer of human existence. Then it all stopped. The rush was slowing down, and V felt his boots hit solid ground.

Prying open his eyes, the vigilante stared curiously into the face of a plain, average woman, whose large, unblinking eyes, bored into his through the mask. "Odd. I have never seen a masked soul before." She murmured gracefully, gliding around him.

V opened his mouth, but dumbly closed it again. God, he felt so lazy. He wanted to go back to that peaceful place he'd experienced. It was so nice to be without worry.

And yet, he felt nothing in this existence, either. No happiness, or sadness, or anger. He couldn't will himself even to move. He just looked at this woman through heavy-lidded eyes, slouched uncharacteristically.

"Do you know where you are?" She asked softly, pressing a hand to his chest until V fell back, and back, and back…

He landed on a cushiony surface and sighed gently, ignoring the apparition as she reappeared, sitting softly on the mattress. "Answer me." She urged gently.

V pried open his eyes, and felt something akin to annoyance. He wanted to rest. Couldn't this woman understand? "No…" he managed to utter. "But I don't care." He turned away lazily.

"You are an unplaceable soul. Do you know what that means?" She didn't bother letting him answer, and pressed on, "An unplaceable soul is a soul whose actions in life could be called well or ill."

V was now quite alert, and struggled to sit up. "Purgatory, you mean." He said sharply. "The proverbial area between Heaven and Hell?"

A smile quirked her lips and the woman, who V now noticed was wearing a very bleak, gray dress shook her head softly. "No. Heaven and Hell are human inventions. However, they have the right gist of the concept. No, you are lingering between what could be called Salvation and Damnation."

V's heart, if he still had one, skipped a beat and he stared at his hands. "Then there is no hope for either in my position, correct?" He looked at the woman and her uncanny smile. "No, you can have either, but for Salvation you will have to work long and hard. Damnation is the easy path, but it is unfulfilling." She took hold of his leather-clad hand gently.

V pulled away and closed his eyes again, feeling almost-human emotions stir and fester in his chest cavity. "Salvation…" He tested the word on his lips, which felt weirdly heavy. "What work would I be required to do?" He looked up again.

"All I am permitted to tell you is that you will return to the world of the living, invisible to all but those meant to see you. Your own soul will dwell without an object. Something deeply personal, but visible to the eye of any living soul." The woman's eyes burned suddenly with a fierce fire. "_You must not_ let any harm come to it. It will be your connection to the ethereal world. Without it you will become little more than a poltergeist."

V stared at her for several more seconds, and came the conclusion that it would be his mask that would be his connection. There was nothing more personal than that. "But what is this mission I will be sent on?" he asked.

"You will know it when the time is right."

"Is that all?" He asked calmly, inclining his head. "I would do best to start then, would I not?"

Irritation flashed in the Gray Woman's eyes. "Do not forget the danger you step into." She warned darkly.

V stood up, towering a foot over her. The mask's smile seemed to grow. "'I have, indeed, no abhorrence of danger, except in its absolute effect - in terror.'"

She frowned. "Go then, you brave fool." She waved her hand, and V knew nothing more.

* * *

Evey was late.

The clock happily chimed in the time of 10:45

Oh God, was she ever late.

After the Fifth, Evey had secured a fantastic job as a public speaker for the new government. Her days were generally filled with pleasant meetings and talking to video cameras, broadcasting her messages into each house that still watched political debates, now that other channels had been reinstated. But, if she didn't get out of her apartment soon, that job would be history.

Living on the second-to-top floor was grand, and the view was spectacular, but when the elevators were out of service and one was wearing high-heels, one wished quite bitterly for a ground-level place.

Bursting into the street and straightening her dark red suit, Evey jostled the papers in her arms and grabbed her bus pass, boarding the automobile with a tremendous sigh. She was so unorganized nowadays. V would have laughed, though.

Evey smiled wistfully. Yes, he would have laughed at her struggles. He would have laughed while holding the door for her, and helping to hold these confounded papers. V would laugh but be a complete gentleman at the same time.

"You have a broadcast in two hours, Evey, don't think about him yet." She said softly.

The russet curls that had been growing out for five years now bounced merrily against her back as Evey made her way off the bus, and into the Jordan Tower.

"Oh…." Evey stopped outside her office door and reached down, scooping a Guy Fawkes mask up and cradling it in her hands. The surface was smooth and porcelain, not the metal that V's masks had been.

Stepping through the entrance, Evey kicked the door softly closed and studied the mask closely. Something felt odd about it. People were always sending her cheap, flimsy masks, but why would anyone go to such lengths to send her a gift?

Stabbing a thumbtack into the wall, Evey carefully hung her new possession up with a wry smile, travelling to her desk and going over her speech.

* * *

V's eyes fluttered slowly open and he hummed softly, lazily blinking and taking in his surroundings. It was an office with oak tables, cushy poufs and languid armchairs.

Looking to the left he studied the maple desk, and the swivel chair whose occupant had turned back on. Bollocks. How was he supposed to do what he'd been sent to do while pinned to the wall?

Why the hell was he pinned to a wall?

V grimaced beneath the mask and twisted left and right with a body he couldn't even see, or feel, but there was a satisfying quiver as the porcelain hovered on the edge, then fell.

In a panic, V threw out his legs to stop the descent, and was shocked to find that they appeared almost magically, vaguely transparent and creepy, but solid. With an appreciative look, V flexed his fingers.

"Who are you?" V turned on a dime and looked straight at Evey Hammond. His heart clenched instantaneously and he stepped back in shock. Her office? This was his Evey's workplace? "I asked who you were. November Fifth isn't for another three months. Aren't you getting out the costume a bit early?"

V chuckled easily and his voice echoed ethereally through the air. "Need we go over this again, my dear?" Evey's face froze and he circled around to look at her. "Who is but the form following the function of—"

Before he was even finished the sentence, Evey had fainted into her chair.

* * *

When Evey awoke, she lapsed, with her eyes closed, into a fit of laughter and dry sobs. She'd thought she's seen V. God, how stupid could you get? A hand touched her shoulder gently. That would be Patricia, wondering why she was asleep on the job.

"Coming… I'm coming…" Evey murmured, raising her head and opening her eyes.

She let out a shattering shriek and snapped them shut again. Oh God… a ghost was there. A ghost that looked like V. Evey opened her eyes again and gulped down the lump in her throat. "V?"

The familiar mask bore down on her. "Yes?" Came the slow, even reply.

"You… you're alive. You're alive!" She lunged forward and embraced him tightly, not caring if he was semi-transparent, or if it felt like hugging the air. He was there, therefore he was alive.

V looked down at her sadly. "No, Evey… no." He pried her hands away and grimaced. "I'm not living." V watched her expressions change quickly from happiness to confusion. "I am only here for a limited time."

Evey made a face. "Then we'll find you a body, won't we?" He shook his head. "V, you can't leave again!"

"I don't want a body, Evey."

"But V… if you die—"

"'Call no man happy till he is dead.'" V recited boldly, "Aeschylus." He added, seeing her confused expression. "Evey, you must understand, I would never willingly leave you again, but I want my peace."

Evey looked up at him like a lost child and V hugged her loosely.

"I want my tree." He murmured into her hair.

**Quotes:**

"**Call no man happy till he is dead." – Aeschylus**

"**I have, indeed, no abhorrence of danger, except in its absolute effect - in terror."-- Edgar Allan Poe**


End file.
